Art & Teens

After serving three years as the Art Adventure coordinator for my elementary school, I turned over the position to someone else.  I could tell it was time for me to turn it over because it's been a constant stress since September and not much fun.  I intend to return next year as a regular volunteer which means I can still present in the classroooms, but no more recruiting people, making sure they get to training, and dealing with volunteers who don't come through.  That was the hardest part.  If I say I'm going to do something, I do it or a find a sub.  So I found it hard to be patient with people who would just skip their commitments.  The woman who is taking over the coordination is excited about running the program and has an art background, so the transfer couldn't be more perfect.

I keep waiting with some anxiety for Jacob to turn into an obnoxious teen.  I am relieved to say, he's still a really great kid and we really enjoy having him around.  However, last week I saw just a hint of something I'd call "teen behavior."  Jacob is a great student so typically, he studies, then asks me to quiz him in preparation for a test.  Last week he brought several study sheets to me and asked me to quiz him.   After 2-3 questions, I realized he hadn't reviewed the material at all.  I believe strongly that I am not here to teach him the material, but to help him review it, so I told him to go study and come back when he was ready.  Jacob got mad and told me he was not going to review the material and that if I didn't quiz him - he'd just fail the test.  I held firm - "No, go review and then I'll quiz you."  "NO!" was his reply.  "Well then fail the test," was my retort.  Off he went to play video games.  And I began to pace in the kitchen.  My thoughts went something like this . . . "I've passed Health.  I don't need to study this material.  It's not my test.  It's better that he fail now than in High School when it counts on his transcripts.  He's testing me."  It took strength for me not to cave and help him study for that test because if there is one thing I really care about, it's grades and Jacob knows it.  All of Saturday passed and Jacob didn't study for that test.  All of Sunday passed and Jacob didn't study for his test.  By Sunday night I'd resigned myself that despite his amazing academic talent, he was going to fail that test and drop his grade significantly because tests make up 80% of the grade.   Monday morning, a humble kid approached me and asked if I'd help him review.  "Did you study?"  "Yep."  And he had, so we quickly reviewed what we could before he rushed to catch the bus, saying he'd finish studying over lunch.  He ended up doing very well on that test.  But more importantly, he tested me and I did the right thing - the thing that helped him learn who was responsible for his grade and the thing that helped him become just a bit more mature and independent.  It's all about getting them ready to fly solo when the time comes and I feel like we moved a tiny bit closer to that goal.